Hi there,

I was wondering what strats are routed for a humbucker that have single coils.

Especially curious about the Delxe Players Strat and the Deluxe Roadhouse Strat?

Thanks.

Mexican Strats are routed for HSS.

Most American Strats feature an HSH rout, with a few Factory Special Runs sporting an HHH rout to accommodate a third humbucker in the middle position if desired.

Mexican Classic Series (50/60/70) are routed SSS.

Cheers,
Robin

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http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
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late 80's strats have the swimming pool which will accomodate any pickup configuration. Not sure what year they did away with that route.

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"Where would rock and roll be without feedback?"

Oh so very few are routed SSS nowadays?

Which would mean the 2 models I posted are both routed HSS which I'll assume are Mexican.

Both use the same route configuration, the difference is in the drop in pick guard pup/electronics.....thus HSS route..

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Here you go mate. The Deluxe Players Strat.



Goodonya ...Mark.

It's been interesting to learn, as these guitars evolved, what the production line will do for the sake of expediency. I always felt that the 'swimming pool' rout was a horror show. Had a gorgeous '97 natural finish American Standard which was all hollow in the middle. If I were doing an H/H or an H/S/S configuration I'd have it done by the CS and specify nothing routed beyond that necessary for the pups and the wiring. This would preserve more wood.

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"Another day in paradise!"

I recalled the MIJ contemporaries having an HHH rout.

Most Squiers and a couple of Custom Shop Factory Special Runs are routed for three full-sized humbuckers.

The "Swimming Pool" routed model was the most successful run of the MIA Standard Strat ever - 12 years before Fender changed it. So..............

[quote="SNick]The "Swimming Pool" routed model was the most successful run of the MIA Standard Strat ever - 12 years before Fender changed it. So..............[/quote]

.................there must have been a really sound reason to get away from that.

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"Another day in paradise!"

I don't think the swimming pool route makes a huge amount of difference, to be honest - some of the nicest sounding and most responsive Strats I've owned have had that big old hole in them. I've had a couple which sounded bloody awful as well, but I'm sure that was more to do with the rest of the instrument than the routing.

I've played more traditionally routed Strats which sounded bad than US Standards, including a few extremely expensive vintage turkeys with bodies that were about as resonant as a lump of concrete.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have the nice tight old fashioned routing, but I'm never put off a Strat because of the shape of the internal holes - if it sounds good, it is good!

"................there must have been a really sound reason to get away from that."

Internet forums killed the swimming pool routing. Before that, most consumers didn't know or care what was under the pickguard -- they tried the guitars in the store and if they liked them they bought them. But when internet gurus started blathering about "Fender's dirty little secrets" and "more wood equals more tone" and the sheeple started to bleat along with them, Fender reacted.

Swimming pool routes take more time on the CNC machine than individual cavities, and wear out bits faster. There's no cost saving. Fender decided that if giving people the flexibility to use any pickup configuration they wanted was seen as a "flaw" by the consumers rather than a benefit, they might as well save some money and not remove as much wood.

Your first paragraph sounds very much partial to the swimming pool rout. In your second paragraph you raise a question in my mind as to why FMIC should care what pickup configurations consumers would use aftermarket. How do you come by this knowledge as to why they reverted to the vintage routing. Are you speculating or do you have incontrovertible information regarding their decision making? The veracity of sources has become an issue of recent date.

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"Another day in paradise!"

No, I'm not partial to the swimming pool rout. I prefer original specs -- 6-screw trems, heel-adjust single-action truss rods, 7.25" radius, small frets (21 of 'em). I prefer SSS routing. I'm willing to compromise on some specs (since I can't afford a Leo-era Strat), but I consider HSH to be just as big a compromise as the swimming pool.

I don't have any hard insider info, though Morgan Ringwald (Fender's PR director at the time of the changeover) strongly hinted about the reasons for the change on the FDP (back before this forum existed, when the FDP was Fender's official forum).